Automated transmission of aircraft anomalous incident data via preferred transmission modes

ABSTRACT

This disclosure is directed to techniques for automated transmission of surveillance incident data or other anomalous incident data from an aircraft via a preferred transmission mode. An example method includes detecting, by a processing device onboard an aircraft, an anomalous incident involving the aircraft that qualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalous incident reporting criteria. The method further includes identifying, by the processing device, data onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalous incident. The method further includes detecting that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selected data transmission mode for transmitting the data relevant to the anomalous incident. The method further includes communicating the data relevant to the anomalous incident to a transmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission mode in response to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selected data transmission mode.

This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 14/675,317,filed Mar. 31, 2015, the entire content of which is hereby incorporatedby reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to aviation systems.

BACKGROUND

In certain circumstances, it may be legally required and/or ofcommercial interest for an airline or other aircraft operator todownload certain surveillance incident-related data from avionic systemsof an aircraft, from data that typically only remains stored temporarilyon the applicable avionic system on the aircraft. Such surveillance datamay include Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) data, insituations in which an aircraft experiences an incident such as flyingtoo close to another aircraft, for example. Such surveillance data maybe useful or important for a relevant authority and/or an airline orother aircraft operator to analyze and to study how to prevent suchsurveillance incidents in the future. In such cases, to download thesurveillance data, airline personnel may typically schedule a time whenthey can visit the aircraft to connect a computer to the onboard TCASsystem or other appropriate aircraft avionic system to perform thedownload.

SUMMARY

This disclosure is directed to methods, systems, and computer programproducts for automatically delivering relevant surveillance incidentdata or other anomalous incident data from aircraft systems to anoff-aircraft data store in ways that may meet requirements for datacompleteness, data integrity, data security, and operating cost.Traditional procedures for scheduling an airline personnel to visit anaircraft to physically connect a computer to applicable aircraft systemsto download surveillance incident data are associated with expense,delay, and the possibility of inadvertently introducing malware from thepersonnel computer to the aircraft systems. A system of this disclosuremay instead enable automated and efficient wireless download ofsurveillance incident data or other anomalous incident data from anapplicable aircraft system, such as a TCAS system, a ground proximitywarning system (GPWS), or a weather radar (WXR) system, for example, toan external system such as an airline operations center network.

It may be expensive and difficult or impossible, as well as unnecessary,to transmit all relevant surveillance incident data or other anomalousincident data (collectively, “anomalous incident data”) from theaircraft to a ground-based system while the aircraft is still in flight.A system of this disclosure may instead detect relevant anomalousincident data for an incident; determine when the aircraft is in rangeor otherwise in a status that makes available a selected datatransmission mode for the anomalous incident data, which may be anefficient and economical data transmission mode such as Gatelink, Wi-Fi,ground-based mobile broadband (e.g., 4G/LTE), broadband satellitecommunication (SatCom), or ground-based cellular datalink (e.g., 2G or3G); and communicate the anomalous incident data to the applicable datarouting or transmission system, such as a Gatelink transceiver, a VeryHigh Frequency (VHF) transceiver, a High-Frequency (HF) transceiver, ora transceiver for communicating with ground-based broadband or cellular,potentially under control of a communications management unit (CMU) oran Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), inresponse to detecting when the aircraft is in range or otherwise inavailable status for the selected transmission mode. A system of thisdisclosure may also select other forms of communication, such as SatCom,VHF or HF radio data link, in some cases, such as where lower-cost datatransmission modes (e.g., Gatelink) have been unavailable for more thana selected length of time depending on the severity or priority level ofthe data. A system of this disclosure may thus enable automated,efficient, and economical transmission of anomalous incident data fromthe applicable aircraft onboard systems to the airline or other aircraftoperator.

In one example, a method includes detecting, by a processing deviceonboard an aircraft, an anomalous incident involving the aircraft thatqualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalous incidentreporting criteria. The method further includes identifying, by theprocessing device, data onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalousincident. The method further includes detecting, by the processingdevice, that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selecteddata transmission mode for transmitting the data relevant to theanomalous incident. The method further includes communicating, by theprocessing device, the data relevant to the anomalous incident to atransmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selecteddata transmission mode in response to detecting that the aircraft is inthe status that makes available the selected data transmission mode.

In another example, a system onboard an aircraft includes one or moreprocessing devices. The one or more processing devices are configured todetect an anomalous incident involving an aircraft that qualifies forreporting relative to a set of anomalous incident reporting criteria.The one or more processing devices are further configured to identifydata onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalous incident. The one ormore processing devices are further configured to detect that theaircraft is in a status that makes available a selected datatransmission mode for transmitting the data relevant to the anomalousincident. The one or more processing devices are further configured tocommunicate the data relevant to the anomalous incident to atransmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selecteddata transmission mode in response to detecting that the aircraft is inthe status that makes available the selected data transmission mode.

In another example, a computer program product is configured to cause acomputing device to detect an anomalous incident involving an aircraftthat qualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalous incidentreporting criteria. The computer program product is further configuredto identify data onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalousincident. The computer program product is further configured to causethe computing device to detect that the aircraft is in range for aselected data transmission mode for transmitting the data relevant tothe anomalous incident. The computer program product is furtherconfigured to cause the computing device to communicate the datarelevant to the anomalous incident to a transmission system fortransmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission modein response to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makesavailable the selected data transmission mode.

The disclosure is also directed to an article of manufacture comprisinga computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage mediumcomprises computer-readable instructions that are executable by one ormore processors. The instructions cause the one or more processors toperform any part of the techniques described herein. The instructionsmay be, for example, software instructions, such as those used to definea software or computer program. The computer-readable medium may be acomputer-readable storage medium such as a storage device (e.g., a diskdrive, or an optical drive), memory (e.g., a Flash memory, read onlymemory (ROM), or random access memory (RAM)) or any other type ofvolatile or non-volatile memory or storage element that storesinstructions (e.g., in the form of a computer program or otherexecutable) to cause one or more processors to perform the techniquesdescribed herein. The computer-readable medium may be a non-transitorystorage medium.

The details of one or more examples are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings and the description below. Other features, objects, andadvantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and fromthe claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram depicting an ownship aircraft equippedwith an automated surveillance incident reporting system, and in flightamong various potential hazards, including an intruder aircraft, amountain, and a weather system, in an illustrative implementation.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of two aircraft each equipped with anautomated surveillance incident reporting system to detect that therespective aircraft is in range of a selected data transmission mode, inthe form of an Very High Frequency (VHF) ground antenna and a Gatelinknetwork at an airport gate, respectively, in an illustrativeimplementation.

FIG. 3 shows another example of an aircraft that includes an AircraftEnvironment Surveillance System (AESS) equipped with an automatedsurveillance incident reporting system and communicatively connected viaan onboard avionics network to various data transmission systems,including a VHF transceiver, an HF transceiver, a Gatelink transceiver,and a SatCom transceiver, in an illustrative implementation.

FIG. 4 shows a conceptual block diagram of an aircraft equipped with anautomated anomalous incident reporting system, in another illustrativeimplementation.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart for an example process that an automatedanomalous incident reporting system may implement for detecting andtransmitting anomalous incident data, in accordance with illustrativeaspects of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various examples are described below directed to techniques, methods,systems, and computer program products for automatically transmittingrelevant anomalous incident data from aircraft systems to anoff-aircraft system. In particular, an automated anomalous incidentreporting system onboard an aircraft may identify data onboard theaircraft relevant to an anomalous incident involving the aircraft,detect that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selecteddata transmission mode, and communicate the data relevant to theanomalous incident to the transmission system for transmission from theaircraft via the selected data transmission mode in response todetecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available theselected data transmission mode.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram depicting an ownship aircraft 100(“ownship 100”) equipped with an automated surveillance incidentreporting system (ASIRS) 102 (as one example implementation of anautomated anomalous incident reporting system (AAIRS)), and in flightamong various potential hazards, including an intruder aircraft 182, amountain 184, and a weather system 186, in an illustrativeimplementation. Ownship 100 may include aircraft systems that generateadvisories or alerts regarding anomalous surveillance incidentsinvolving aircraft 100 (e.g., related to potential hazards). Examples ofsuch aircraft systems include a TCAS system 112, an enhanced groundproximity warning system (EGPWS) 114, and a weather radar (WXR) system116. These and other aircraft systems that surveil the aircraft'ssurroundings and provide or perform an advisory or alerting function maycollectively be referred to as aircraft surveillance systems. ASIRS 102may identify surveillance data gathered, detected, or generated by TCASsystem 112, EGPWS 114, WXR system 116, or other aircraft surveillancesystem. Other examples may be implemented with a more generalizedautomated anomalous incident reporting system (AAIRS) that may receiveadditional types of anomalous incident data besides surveillanceincident data, from other types of anomaly alerting systems, asdescribed further below. In some examples, ownship 100 may include anAircraft Environment Surveillance System (AESS) 110 (or more generally,an integrated surveillance system (ISS) that may comply withAeronautical Radio, Inc. (ARINC) Standard 768) that includes TCAS system112, EGPWS 114, WXR system 116, and ASIRS 102 in an integrated system.

TCAS system 112 may detect the distance between ownship 100 and intruderaircraft 182 (or other proximate aircraft), and generate a TrafficAdvisory (TA) if the separation between ownship 100 and intruderaircraft 182 drops below a TA separation threshold. TCAS system 112 mayalso generate a Resolution Advisory (RA) if the separation betweenownship 100 and intruder aircraft 182 drops below an RA separationthreshold, which is of less distance than the TA separation threshold.In many jurisdictions generally, TCAS alerts in commercial or generalaviation may be defined by federal law, international agreements, andstandards set by standards bodies such as the RTCA (e.g., RTCA DO-185).In illustrative examples, the TA and RA separation thresholds may bedependent on the speed, heading, altitude, or a combination thereof ofownship 100. For example, when ownship 100 is between 5,000 and 10,000feet altitude, TCAS system 112 may define the TA separation threshold at40 seconds of travel time of ownship 100, and the RA separationthreshold at 25 seconds. The specific definitions for the TA and RAseparation thresholds, or for other separation thresholds evaluated ordefined by ASIRS 102, may vary in different implementations. Variousimplementations may also employ a TCAS system 112 that complies with anyof different types and versions of TCAS, such as TCAS II version 7.0,7.1, or any other applicable current or future TCAS version. Someimplementations may also use other types of collision avoidance systemssuch as an Aircraft Collision Avoidance System (ACAS). The TCAS datacollected and/or indicated by TCAS system 112 related to an RA, andpotentially also to a TA, may be an example of surveillance data thatASIRS 102 identifies as relevant to a surveillance incident. In someother jurisdictions or in aircraft with new and/or experimental TCASimplementations, or other examples, a TCAS or other collision avoidancesystem may apply other criteria or algorithms for when to issue analert. Any type of alerting criteria or algorithms may be applicable indifferent implementations of a system of this disclosure.

EGPWS 114 may detect the distance between ownship 100 and mountain 184(or other ground obstacle) and generate a ground proximity alert if thedistance between ownship 100 and mountain 184 drops below a groundproximity distance threshold. EGPWS 114 may be implemented by using aradar altimeter or radar range detector that detects the distancebetween the aircraft and ground surfaces, for example. EGPWS 114 may usea number of inputs such as aircraft position, attitude, air speed,glideslope to compare with the positions of ground surfaces. EGPWS 114may also incorporate a database of ground surface terrain and obstaclesthat it may compare with present aircraft position, and take certainactions if it detects any new discrepancy between the ground surfacedatabase and the incoming ground surface data, such as target thediscrepant ground surface to gather additional data. ASIRS 102 mayinclude any or all of this data related to a ground proximity alert aspart of its surveillance data relevant to a surveillance incident. EGPWS114 as described herein is one example of a ground proximity warningsystem (GPWS). Some implementations may use other types of GPWS. In someexamples, a GPWS or EGPWS may issue alerts in accordance with the UnitedStates Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) TSO C92 standard. Someexamples may include a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS)configured to generate TAWS alerts in accordance with the U.S. FAA TSOC151 standard or other applicable TAWS alerting criteria. A TAWS mayalso be a type of GPWS. Still other examples may include a GCAS, aT2CAS, a T3CAS, all of which may also be types of GPWS, and some ofwhich may also integrate other functions such as TCAS, TAWS, ADS-B,TIS-B, wind shear alerting, and traffic management functions. Asindicated above with reference to TCAS, in some other jurisdictions orin aircraft with new and/or experimental EGPWS, TAWS, or other type ofGPWS implementations, or other examples, a GPWS of any of various typesmay apply other criteria or algorithms for when to issue an alert, andany type of alerting criteria or algorithms may be applicable indifferent implementations of a system of this disclosure. Thus, variousimplementations of this disclosure may include any type of GPWS,including Enhanced GPWS (EGPWS), or other types of terrain awareness andwarning system (TAWS), a GCAS, a T2CAS, a T3CAS, or any otheranalogously functioning system by any other name.

WXR system 116 may detect the distance between ownship 100 and weathersystem 186, as well as detect if weather system 186 includes certainsevere weather conditions such as wind speed, wind shear, or turbulenceabove a selected severity threshold. WXR system 116 may generate aweather system alert if WXR system 116 determines the weather conditionsof weather system 186 to exceed one or more selected thresholds ofseverity, and if WXR system 116 detects that the distance betweenownship 100 and weather system 186 drops below a selected weather systemdistance threshold. The selected threshold of severity may be rainfallabove a selected threshold (such as 11.5 mm/hour), a temperaturedifference across the surface of the weather front above a selectedthreshold (e.g., above 10 degrees Fahrenheit or 5 degrees Celsiusdifference across the surface of the weather front), or wind shear orweather front speed above a selected threshold (e.g., 30 knots) (otherexamples of values for any of these thresholds may be used in otherimplementations). WXR system 116 may also generate a weather systemalert if WXR system 116 detects any indication of thunder or lightningin the weather front (e.g., the selected threshold of severity for thepresence of thunder or lightning may be any more than zero thunder orlightning detected, which are also indicative of potentially hazardouswind shear). WXR system 116 may also generate a weather system alertbased on a predictive wind shear alert, a reactive wind shear alert, ora turbulence alert, for example. The weather hazard data collectedand/or indicated by WXR system 116 related to an encounter with aweather system may be yet another example of surveillance data thatASIRS 102 identifies as relevant to a surveillance incident. In someexamples, a weather alert system may issue weather alerts, turbulencealerts, or predictive wind shear alerts in accordance with the U.S. FAATSO C63 standard. As in the examples of TCAS and EGPWS/GPWS discussedabove, any of a wide variety of other alerting criteria or algorithmsmay be applicable in different implementations of a system of thisdisclosure.

In various other examples, an additional alerting system may also issueother types of alerts, for some of which ASIRS 102 may be implemented asa more generalized AAIRS that may also receive non-surveillance anomalyalerts. These example additional alerting systems may include a flightdynamics alerting system configured to generate reactive wind shearalerts in accordance with the U.S. FAA TSO C117 standard or otherapplicable reactive wind shear alerting criteria and/or configured togenerate stall warning alerts in accordance with the U.S. FAA TSO C54standard or other applicable stall warning alert criteria; a lightningalert system configured to generate an alert when it detects lightningin the vicinity of the aircraft; a cabin pressure alerting systemconfigured to generate cabin pressure or hypoxia warnings alerts basedon criteria or algorithms applied to readings from a cabin pressuresensor; a pilot condition alerting system configured to detect potentialindications of pilot fatigue, hypoxia, food poisoning, duress, or anyother type of impairment, suboptimal performance, or health condition ofthe pilot; an internal status alerting system configured to detectanomalous conditions in the cockpit or cabin, such as anomalous cabinpressure, or failure to correct an anomalous cabin pressure after aselected interval of time, or anomalous cabin ambient noise level, orfailure to correct an anomalous cabin ambient noise level after aselected interval of time; an external icing monitoring and alertingsystem that may detect hazardous icing conditions on the exterior of theaircraft; or any other type of surveillance systems or anomalydetecting, monitoring, or alerting systems configured to generate alertsbased on criteria or algorithms applied to other inputs or conditions. Apilot may also manually enter an emergency transponder code (e.g.,transponder code 7500, 7600, or 7700) which ASIRS 102 may be configuredto receive and interpret as a triggering criterion for transmittinganomalous incident report data and/or an anomalous incidentnotification. As in the examples discussed above, any of a wide varietyof other alerting criteria or algorithms may be applicable in differentimplementations of a system of this disclosure. In some examples, analert being generated by any one or more or any combination of thesealerting systems described above may be considered to satisfy reportingcriteria for reporting as a surveillance incident, with one of a numberof different potential priority levels or urgency levels.

In still another example, aircraft 100 may have an internal sensorsystem that detects anomalous activity or conditions in the cockpitand/or cabin of the aircraft, such as anomalous cabin pressure oranomalous cabin ambient noise decibel level, and records or communicatesdata related to such onboard anomalies, which may be received by a moregeneralized AAIRS implementation of ASIRS 102. In yet another example,ASIRS 102 may record a stall warning as a surveillance incident, andextract, store, or otherwise identify data relevant to the stallwarning. In any of these examples, ASIRS 102 may also gather and storeany other relevant aircraft data simultaneous with or potentiallyrelated to a surveillance incident as additional surveillance data, suchas speed, heading, altitude, or other parameters of the aircraft'strajectory or condition.

FIG. 1 depicts an incident range 104 around ownship 100 that may definea distance from ownship 100 such that an onboard incident alertingsystem (e.g., TCAS system 112, EGPWS 114, WXR system 116) may generatean applicable advisory or alert if the applicable hazard is detectedwithin incident range 104. Incident range 104 as shown in FIG. 1 mayrepresent a variable distance in different directions, with a largerdistance in the direction of the heading of ownship 100. Incident range104 as shown in FIG. 1 may represent a different distance for differenttypes of environment surveillance modes, e.g., variably representing anRA distance threshold of TCAS system 112, a ground proximity distancethreshold of EGPWS 114, or a weather system distance threshold of WXRsystem 116.

In some examples, incident range 104 may define either a generallycylindrical or generally spherical volume around ownship 100. Forexample, TCAS system 112 may combine a selected generally radialincident range 104 within a selected height or altitude difference aboveand below ownship 100 to define a generally cylindrical protected spacearound ownship 100, and generate an RA if another aircraft (e.g.,intruder aircraft 182) is detected within that cylindrical space aroundownship 100. As other examples, EGPWS 114 may generate a groundproximity alert if it detects a ground obstacle (e.g., mountain 184)within incident range 104 in any direction from ownship 100, and WXRsystem 116 may generate a weather system alert if it detects a severeweather system (e.g., weather system 186) within incident range 104along the current heading or otherwise along a predicted flight path ofor intercept course with ownship 100. In other examples, TCAS system 112or any other kind of alerting system may not apply an incident range orother distance criterion, and may apply criteria based on any one ormore of distance, speed, heading, acceleration, engine thrust, angle ofattack, or various other conditions or parameters.

If ownship 100 passes within any of the applicable threshold distances(as measured in either time or distance) of either another aircraft(e.g., intruder aircraft 182), a ground obstacle (e.g., mountain 184),or a severe weather system (e.g., weather system 186), this may beconsidered an incident involving ownship 100, for purposes of ASIRS 102.ASIRS 102 may detect when any of TCAS system 112, EGPWS 114, or WXRsystem 116 issues or generates an applicable advisory or alertindicating a surveillance incident involving ownship 100, and ASIRS 102may identify surveillance data related to the surveillance incident. Thesurveillance data or other data related or relevant to the surveillanceincident or other anomalous incident as identified by ASIRS 102 (or amore generalized AAIRS implementation that may include ASIRS 102) mayinclude surveillance data gathered, stored, and/or generated(collectively, “handled”) by any onboard anomalous incident alertingsystem (e.g., TCAS system 112, EGPWS 114, WXR system 116, or any of theother onboard anomalous incident alerting systems described herein)related to the anomalous incident. For example, ASIRS 102 may identifysurveillance data gathered, stored, and/or generated by TCAS system 112related to an RA issued by TCAS system; or surveillance data gathered,stored, and/or generated by EGPWS 114 related to a ground proximityalert generated by EGPWS 114; or surveillance data gathered, stored,and/or generated by WXR system 116 related to a weather system alertgenerated by WXR system 116.

ASIRS 102 identifying surveillance data involved in a surveillanceincident may include ASIRS 102 indexing the surveillance data, storingits own copy of the data, and/or storing addresses or locations of thedata in data storage of another aircraft system such as TCAS system 112,EGPWS 114, or WXR system 116, for example. ASIRS 102 identifyingsurveillance data may also include ASIRS 102 extracting, from TCASsystem 112, EGPWS 114, WXR system 116, or other aircraft system,specific surveillance data relevant to a surveillance incident. In someexamples implemented in an AESS 110, ASIRS 102 may identify surveillancedata stored in data storage of AESS 110 by a surveillance component ofAESS 110, which may be TCAS system 112, EGPWS 114, or WXR system 116.ASIRS 102 may also detect additional data related to the surveillanceincident beyond the data gathered and/or stored by TCAS system 112,EGPWS 114, or WXR system 116. In some examples, other aircraft systemsmay also detect certain surveillance incident conditions and potentiallygenerate advisories or alerts and surveillance data related to thesurveillance incident, and ASIRS 102 may identify the surveillance datarelated to the surveillance incident for which those other aircraftsystems detect the surveillance incident conditions.

While ownship 100 is in flight and far from the nearest airport, ownship100 may have a datalink connection to an external network, e.g., aground-based airline operations network (“operator network”) 140operated by a commercial airline or other aircraft operator thatoperates ownship 100. The datalink connection may be implemented througha satellite-based, ground-based, or airborne-based communicationssystem, or a combination of the above (e.g., via datalink satellite 192and/or aircraft VHF or HF or cellular datalink ground station 194), andmay be operated by a third-party network service provider that contractsfor services with the airline or other aircraft operator. The datalinkconnection may enable needed communications in-flight that may beprovided at a given cost per amount of data or at a given fixed rate perperiod of time (e.g., per year). For certain purposes of analyzingsurveillance incident data related to a surveillance incident anaircraft is involved with, such as a TCAS RA, a ground proximity alert,or a weather system alert, it may be more practical or economical not totransmit all surveillance data related to the incident to operatornetwork 140 via a third-party datalink service provider while theaircraft is still in flight, depending on the priority level or urgencylevel ASIRS 102 determines for transmitting the incident data (asfurther described below).

ASIRS 102 may instead determine what data transmission modes areavailable to ownship 100 at different times, and detect when theaircraft is in a status that makes available a selected datatransmission mode to transmit the surveillance data. In some examples,ASIRS 102 may determine what data transmission modes are available byrequesting and/or receiving indications of available transmission modesfrom a CMU, while in some examples, ASIRS 102 may determine what datatransmission modes are available by checking directly with therespective communication systems (e.g., the onboard SatCom, VHF, HF,Gatelink transceivers or systems). ASIRS 102 may detect that ownship 100is in a status that makes available a selected data transmission modewhen ownship 100 is in range for that transmission mode, such as withinrange of a VHF ground antenna or within range of a Gatelink network atan airport gate, for example. ASIRS 102 may detect that ownship 100 isin a status that makes available a selected data transmission mode bydetecting that the applicable transmission system is functioningproperly and is not currently occupied with other transmissions, forexample. ASIRS 102 may store indications of one or more selected datatransmission modes that are practical, economical, or otherwisefavorable for transmitting surveillance incident data. Ownship 100 maybe in a status that makes available a selected data transmission modewhen ownship 100 is in range for the selected, favorable datatransmission mode. For example, the selected data transmission mode maybe Very High Frequency (VHF) radio in some examples, or Gatelink in someexamples, or other datalink communication mode that ownship 100 is notin range for throughout a typical flight. Examples of an automatedsurveillance incident reporting system corresponding to ASIRS 102detecting that its aircraft is in range of a selected data transmissionmode such as VHF, HF, cellular, or Gatelink are shown in FIG. 2.

If ASIRS 102 determines that the incident data is of a sufficiently highpriority level or urgency level, such as alert indications consistentwith a possible imminent collision hazard, ASIRS 102 may designatewhatever communication mode is available within a short time frame or isavailable immediately, regardless of cost, in some examples. Given asufficiently high priority level or urgency level based on the ASIRS'sown criteria applied to indications from the alerting system, ASIRS 102may also override or otherwise bypass a CMU and send data andinstructions directly to the applicable communications system totransmit the surveillance incident data off the aircraft as quickly aspossible, such as by SatCom, in some examples. Overriding or bypassing aCMU or other intermediary system that typically connects to and controlsor provides instructions to communication systems may generally bereferred to as “bypassing the CMU” for purposes of this disclosure.

ASIRS 102 may determine a reporting priority level to be high, low, oran intermediate level. This may include a highest priority level, alowest priority level, and potentially one or more intermediate levels,respectively. If ASIRS 102 determines the priority level to be high,ASIRS 102 may select any data transmission mode that is currentlyavailable to transmit the data off of the ownship aircraft 100 eitherwithin a short time or immediately (and without regard to relativeexpense among transmission modes), in some examples. Generally, if ASIRS102 determines the priority level to be high, ASIRS 102 may selectwhichever transmission mode is currently available; and if more than onetransmission modes are currently available, ASIRS 102 may select thetransmission mode that enables transmission of the surveillance datawithin the shortest interval of time. In these examples, at some timesonly one transmission mode from among SatCom, HF, VHF, ground-basedbroadband, or ground-based cellular may be available at a given time;typically if only one transmission mode is available, it is SatCom. Inthese examples, if ASIRS 102 determines the reporting priority to behigh and SatCom is the only transmission mode available, ASIRS 102 maycommunicate the surveillance data relevant to the surveillance incidentto an onboard SatCom transceiver to transmit the surveillance data. Thismay include ASIRS 102 bypassing the CMU as described above, and/orimpersonating a flight management computer (FMC) or other intermediarysystem, as described below, to reduce or eliminate any potential delayin transmission, if the priority level is at a highest level orotherwise sufficiently high, in some examples.

If ASIRS 102 determines the priority level to be at the lowest level orotherwise at a sufficiently low level, ASIRS 102 may simply wait totransmit the surveillance data via Gatelink once ownship aircraft 100 isat an airport, or may transmit a notification or other summary digest ofthe surveillance data and then transmit additional surveillance data(e.g., a main body of surveillance data) via Gatelink once ownshipaircraft 100 only if a request for the additional surveillance data isreceived in response to the notification or other digest. If ASIRS 102determines that the surveillance data is of an intermediate prioritylevel (e.g., such that the data is not high priority enough that itnecessarily should be transmitted immediately, but it should also notwait for ownship aircraft 102 to finish its flight), ASIRS may select anairborne transmission mode, e.g., from among SatCom, HF, and VHF, basedon one or more criteria that may incorporate a combination ofavailability and cost. For example, the intermediate prioritytransmission mode selecting criteria may determine to use whatever isthe least expensive currently available transmission mode, or whateveris the least expensive transmission mode that is anticipated to beavailable within a selected period of time (such as one hour or twohours, for example). In various examples, the least expensive airbornetransmission mode may be SatCom, or HF, or VHF, or ground-based cellularaircraft service, or another transmission technology or service.

In some examples, ASIRS 102 may determine it has surveillance data withan intermediate reporting priority; ASIRS 102 may further determine thatSatCom and HF are both currently available, and that SatCom would beless expensive than HF (or that HF would be less expensive than SatCom);and ASIRS 102 may communicate the surveillance data to an onboard SatComtransceiver (by way of a CMU in some examples) for transmission via theless expensive SatCom (or ASIRS 102 may communicate the surveillancedata to an onboard HF transceiver (by way of a CMU in some examples) fortransmission via the less expensive HF, respectively). ASIRS 102 mayperform analogous determinations among SatCom and VHF, or SatCom, HF,and VHF, if all three are available, or among any other set of two ormore potentially available transmission modes, in applicable scenarioswith intermediate priority surveillance transmissions, and communicatethe surveillance data via a selected transmission mode among SatCom, HF,VHF, or any others available based on whichever transmission modeanticipated to be available within a selected interval of time, aselected interval of distance traveled, or within an interval definedany other way that ASIRS 102 determines to be the least expensive, invarious examples. In some examples, ASIRS 102 may also apply additionalcriteria, such as available bandwidth, in selecting from among two ormore available transmission modes for intermediate priority surveillancedata. For example, ASIRS 102 may determine that both SatCom and HF areavailable but that SatCom offers higher bandwidth, and ASIRS 102 mayselect SatCom because it has higher bandwidth, or ASIRS 102 may apply acombination of criteria that balance a difference in bandwidth and adifference in cost among each of multiple available transmission modes.The criteria applied by ASIRS 102 for intermediate prioritytransmissions for which examples are described herein may collectivelybe referred to as criteria of reduced expense of transmission mode andof transmission within a selected interval. Thus, if ASIRS 102determines the priority level for transmitting the surveillance data tobe intermediate priority, ASIRS 102 may select a transmission mode fromamong one or more of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency(VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular, based oncriteria that include reduced expense of transmission mode andtransmission within a selected interval.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of two aircraft 200, 210 each equippedwith an automated surveillance incident reporting system (ASIRS) 202,212, respectively, detecting that the respective aircraft is in aposition within range of a selected data transmission mode, in the formof VHF ground antenna 220 and Gatelink network 230 at an airport gate232, respectively, in an illustrative implementation. ASIRS 202 ofaircraft 200 may detect that aircraft 200 is in range of VHF groundantenna 220, and communicate the surveillance incident data to VHFtransceiver 204 of aircraft 200 (which may be configured to transmitACARS data or other data) for transmission to VHF ground antenna 220. Inother examples, ASIRS 202 may detect that an HF transceiver (not shownin FIG. 3) onboard aircraft 200 is able to connect (e.g., depending oncharge of the ionosphere and transmission geometry) to an HF groundantenna (not shown in FIG. 3), and communicate the surveillance incidentdata to an HF transceiver of aircraft 200 for transmission over HFdatalink to the HF ground antenna.

Some aircraft may be equipped with a VHF-only system with no ACARSpresent, while many more modern aircraft are equipped with an ACARSsystem or CMU capable of transmitting over either traditional VHF, HF,SatCom, or cellular datalink. Gatelink may have a maximum rangedependent on how a particular Gatelink network is implemented, e.g., viaWi-Fi, mobile broadband, or cellular technology, for example. Gatelinkrange may require aircraft 200 to be at or proximate to Gatelink network230 (e.g., to an interface to Gatelink network 230 such as a GatelinkWi-Fi router) which may be at airport gate 232, though being proximateto Gatelink network 230 may extend a significant distance out on ataxiway from the airport gate 232, or throughout the airport, in someexamples. Being proximate to Gatelink network 230 or otherwise being inGatelink range may require aircraft 200 to be within Wi-Fi range of aGatelink Wi-Fi router, which may be located anywhere in the airport, insome examples. VHF may have a maximum range of approximately 200 miles(˜320 kilometers) from the nearest VHF ground antenna, in some examples,and may be more economical for data transmission than SatCom, which mayprovide coverage throughout the Earth's airspace, either except for orincluding the north and south polar regions, in different examples. Insome examples, whether or not aircraft 200 is equipped with SatComtransmission capability, ASIRS 202 may have a designation of datatransmissions over VHF as the preferred or selected data transmissionmode for transmitting surveillance incident data, in which aircraft 200may transmit data via VHF transceiver 204 to VHF ground antenna 220.

ASIRS 202 may detect when aircraft 200 is within range of a VHF antennasuch as VHF ground antenna 220, in some examples. If ASIRS 202 hascollected surveillance incident data and detected that the onlycurrently available communication mode is SatCom, ASIRS 202 may waituntil it detects that aircraft 200 is in range of a VHF antenna. OnceASIRS 202 detects that aircraft 200 is in range of VHF ground antenna220, ASIRS 202 then, in response, communicates the surveillance incidentdata to VHF transceiver 204 onboard aircraft 200 for transmission to VHFground antenna 220. ASIRS 202 may thus communicate the relevantsurveillance incident data via VHF ground antenna 220 to operatornetwork 140. If more than one VHF ground antenna is within range andaircraft 200 is preparing to land at an airport, such that one VHFground antenna is proximate to the airport, a CMU or ACARS onboardaircraft 200 may opt to transmit ACARS data to the VHF ground antennaproximate to the airport.

In some other examples, ASIRS 202 may have a designation of the selecteddata transmission mode as VHF data transmissions separate from ACARSdata. In these examples, ASIRS 202 may also detect when aircraft 200 isin range of a VHF ground antenna, and in response to detecting thataircraft 200 has come within range of a VHF ground antenna, ASIRS 202may communicate the surveillance data relevant to the surveillanceincident to VHF transceiver 204 (which may also be capable of non-ACARSVHF transmissions) for transmission from aircraft 200 to operatornetwork 140 via the selected data transmission mode of VHF.

In the example of aircraft 210 in FIG. 2, aircraft 210 may be equippedwith a Gatelink transceiver 214, and ASIRS 212 may have a designation ofthe selected data transmission mode as Gatelink. Gatelink may enablehigh data rates at short range when an aircraft is at an airport gate.In examples such as this, ASIRS 212 may detect when aircraft 210 is inrange of a Gatelink network 230 at an airport gate 232, such as onceaircraft 210 has landed and taxied to airport gate 232. ASIRS 212, inresponse to detecting that aircraft 210 has come within range ofGatelink network 230, may communicate the data relevant to thesurveillance incident to the aircraft's Gatelink transceiver 214 fortransmission from aircraft 210 to Gatelink network 230 and via Gatelinknetwork 230 to operator network 140 via the selected data transmissionmode of Gatelink.

FIG. 3 shows another example of an aircraft 300 that includes anAircraft Environment Surveillance System (AESS) 310 equipped with anautomated surveillance incident reporting system (ASIRS) 302 andcommunicatively connected via an onboard avionics network 330 to acommunications management unit (CMU) (or ACARS) 332, and thereby tovarious data transmission systems, including a VHF transceiver 334, anHF transceiver (not shown in FIG. 3), Gatelink transceiver 344, andSatCom transceiver 354, in an illustrative implementation. VHFtransceiver 334 may be configured to receive data via any of varioustypes of CMU (or ACARS) 332, in different examples. AESS 310 is alsocommunicatively connected via onboard avionics network 330 to a flightmanagement computer (FMC) 336 that may provide relevant data to ASIRS302. (In some examples, ASIRS 302 may communicate data to an ACARS 332by impersonating either FMC 336, a Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit(DFDAU), a Centralized Fault Display Interface Unit (CFDIU), or a cabinterminal.) AESS 310 also includes a TCAS system 312, an Enhanced GroundProximity Warning System (EGPWS) 314, a WXR system 316, transponders326, processors 324, and one or more data storage devices (e.g.,nonvolatile Flash memory or hard disc drives) and/or memory (e.g.,random access memory) devices 322, all communicatively interconnected bya bus 328.

ASIRS 302 may be implemented at least in part using various softwaremodules stored and/or loaded on data storage/memory devices 322 in thisexample, which may be executed by one or more processors 324. Inparticular, ASIRS 302 may include an event data evaluating module 304and a surveillance incident data communication management module 306.Event data evaluating module 304 and surveillance incident datacommunication management module 306 may each be implemented as aseparate software application; as one or more objects, methods, or otherportions of software code within a single software application; or aslibraries of separate software applications, processes, and/or otherportions of software code, for example.

The software modules implementing ASIRS 302 may be embodied in acomputer program product that may be loaded onto data storage/memorydevices 322 for execution by one or more processors 324. Event dataevaluating module 304 and surveillance incident data communicationmanagement module 306 may contain executable instructions that configureprocessors 324 into machines that perform any of the applicablefunctions described herein. ASIRS 302 may be implemented at least inpart in special-purpose hardware elements other than processors 324 anddata storage/memory devices 322 in various examples.

Event data evaluating module 304 may receive data on aircraft events,determine whether the surveillance data indicate that an event qualifiesas a surveillance incident, and determine what surveillance data isrelevant to the surveillance incident. For example, event dataevaluating module 304 may determine whether the surveillance incidentqualifies for reporting relative to a set of surveillance incidentreporting criteria. The set of surveillance incident reporting criteriamay include criteria based on at least one of: a time to interceptbetween the aircraft and an external hazard, a distance between theaircraft and the external hazard, a velocity change needed for theaircraft to avoid the external hazard, and receipt of any of a selectedset of alerts or triggers from one or more surveillance alerting systemsand/or anomaly alerting systems, which may be based on the criteriaapplied by each individual alerting system. For example, TCAS system 312may apply a complex algorithm based on several criteria including speed,heading, altitude, etc. of an ownship and an intruder aircraft indetermining whether to generate a TA or an RA, and event data evaluatingmodule 304 of ASIRS 302 may be configured to accept and interpret an RAgenerated by the TCAS system 312 as a qualifying criterion forgenerating and potentially transmitting a surveillance incident reportand/or a summary digest. In some examples, ASIRS 302 may perform its owncriteria processing of time to intercept between the ownship and theintruder aircraft based on speed, heading, and potentially any otherflight dynamics parameters of both the ownship and the intruderaircraft, potentially independently of the outputs of a TCAS or othercollision avoidance system, to determine whether to generate or transmita surveillance incident report or a notification or other digest ofsurveillance incident data, and potentially to determine whether togenerate and transmit the incident report or digest at the highestpriority level or at some other priority level. In some examples, ASIRS302 may also perform its own criteria processing of velocity changerequired to avoid interception between the ownship and the intruderaircraft, also based on flight dynamics of both vehicles, as anindependent criterion to determine whether to generate or transmit asurveillance incident report or a notification or other digest ofsurveillance incident data, and potentially to determine whether togenerate and transmit the incident report or digest at the highestpriority level or at some other priority level.

Event data evaluating module 304 of ASIRS 302 may also be configured toaccept and interpret certain Boolean outputs from any of a variety ofother surveillance alerting systems or anomaly reporting systems astriggers for generating and potentially transmitting a surveillanceincident report and/or a summary digest. Such surveillance alertingsystems or anomaly reporting systems may illustratively include a stallwarning system, an icing detector, an anomalous pilot control monitoringsystem, a crew impairment monitoring system, an anomalous cockpit/cabincondition monitoring system, or any other type of surveillance alertingsystems or anomaly reporting systems that may detect any of certainsurveillance incidents or other anomalous incidents or conditions, andmay potentially perform complex algorithms based on any one or more setof input data in performing their functions, and may output a Booleantrigger as part of or corresponding to an alert, that may be received asa reporting trigger by event data evaluating module 304 of ASIRS 302.Any such output, from any such surveillance system or other type ofanomaly reporting system including any of those described above orbelow, that may constitute an automatic reporting trigger for ASIRS 302,or that ASIRS 302 may be configured to interpret as an automaticreporting trigger, may be referred to as a “trigger from an anomalyalerting system” for purposes of this disclosure. Event data evaluatingmodule 304 may communicate the data relevant to the anomalous incidentto surveillance incident data communication management module 306 (or ananalogous, more generalized anomalous incident data communicationmanagement module) for communication to the applicable surveillance datatransmission system, e.g., VHF transceiver 334 or Gatelink transceiver344, for transmission from aircraft 300, in response to determining thatthe surveillance incident qualifies for reporting relative to the set ofsurveillance incident reporting criteria.

Event data evaluating module 304 may determine whether the surveillanceincident is of qualifying severity or otherwise qualifies for reportingrelative to the set of surveillance incident reporting criteria bydetermining whether aircraft 300 came within a minimum separationthreshold of the external hazard based on the set of surveillanceincident reporting criteria, for example. Event data evaluating module304 may determine whether aircraft 300 came within the minimumseparation threshold of the external hazard based on the set ofsurveillance incident reporting criteria by making determinations suchas determining that the time to intercept between the aircraft and theexternal hazard was less than a threshold time, as described furtherbelow; that the distance between the aircraft and the external hazardwas less than a threshold distance, also as described further below, andwherein the threshold distance may be determined at least in part on thealtitude of the aircraft; or that the velocity change needed for theaircraft to avoid the external hazard was greater than a thresholdvelocity change, for example also as described further below. Event dataevaluating module 304 may also receive and interpret certain alerts orBoolean outputs from certain surveillance systems or anomaly detectionsystems as qualifying criteria for performing surveillance incidentreporting or more generally anomalous incident reporting, as describedabove.

Event data evaluating module 304 may also determine a priority level ofthe surveillance incident based on the same or similar criteria, such asby ranking a surveillance incident as higher priority if the minimumdistance or time to intercept between the aircraft and the externalhazard was less than a lower distance or time threshold than forqualifying as a surveillance incident, or if the minimum velocity changeneeded for the aircraft to avoid the external hazard was greater than avelocity change threshold for qualifying as a surveillance incident. Insome examples, event data evaluating module 304 may be configured toassign a certain set priority to a certain type of alert or to a Booleantrigger output from one or more certain alerting systems. In someexamples, event data evaluating module 304 may also be configured togenerate a summary digest of the surveillance incident or other type ofanomalous incident and to assign a priority level to the digest. Eventdata evaluating module 304 may select the surveillance data transmissionmode based on the determined priority level of the surveillanceincident, and thereby determine a selected data transmission mode totransmit the surveillance data based on the priority level prior todetecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available theselected data transmission mode.

Surveillance incident data communication management module 306 may storedesignations of one or more selected or preferred data transmissionmodes for communicating to a data transmission system for transmittingoff of aircraft 300 to operator network 140, based on one or more levelsof qualifying severity of the surveillance incident. ASIRS 302 may alsoenable the threshold levels for various types of surveillance incidents,or other levels of qualifying severity of surveillance incidents, andthe types of data transmission modes applicable to different thresholdlevels or severity levels of the surveillance incident, to beconfigurable by a user (e.g., by the airline or other aircraftoperator). Surveillance incident data communication management module306 may also detect what data transmission modes are currently availabledepending on whether they are in range of aircraft 300 or if aircraft300 is otherwise in a status that makes a selected data transmissionmode available. For example, surveillance incident data communicationmanagement module 306 may regularly interrogate VHF transceiver 334,Gatelink transceiver 344, and SatCom transceiver 354 to determinewhether these transmission systems currently have a connection with orare in range of their applicable counterpart systems external to theaircraft.

Surveillance incident data communication management module 306 may alsodetect conditions such as the position, speed, altitude, and weight onwheels of aircraft 300. CMU (ACARS) 332 may itself track via VHF groundantennas and SatCom transceiver 354 whether VHF and SatCom are currentlyin range, such as by getting an indication of carrier frequency lockfrom the VHF radio in the case of VHF, and may manage defaulting to VHFcommunication when aircraft 300 is in range for VHF transmissions.

ASIRS 302 may thus be configured to detect when aircraft 300 is in rangefor transmissions via VHF transceiver 334 to VHF ground antenna 220 orvia Gatelink transceiver 344 to Gatelink network 230 at airport gate232. ASIRS 302 may thus communicate surveillance incident data to VHFtransceiver 334 and/or Gatelink transceiver 344 for transmission to VHFground antenna 220 or Gatelink network 230, respectively, and thereby totransmit the surveillance incident data to operator network 140.

In some implementations, ASIRS 302 may have designated preferences forsending an initial notification or other type of digest of asurveillance incident (hereafter, either “surveillance incident” orsimply “incident”) via a first transmission mode, and for sending thefull set of relevant data related to the surveillance incident via asecond transmission mode. For example, surveillance incident datacommunication management module 306 of ASIRS 302 may have stored adesignated preference to send the initial notification or other digestof an incident (after ASIRS 302 first determines that an event withaircraft 300 qualifies as an incident) to operator network 140 via anytransmission mode available, including SatCom, as soon as or within ashort time of ASIRS 302 first determining that an event qualifies as anincident, and subsequently to transmit the complete relevant set ofsurveillance data related to the incident (hereafter, either“surveillance data” or simply “data”) once the preferred secondtransmission mode (e.g., VHF, HF, Gatelink) is in range, or when theaircraft is otherwise in a status that makes available the selectedsecond data transmission mode. The stored preferences for the firsttransmission mode for transmitting the initial incident notification ordigest may indicate to use Gatelink, VHF, HF, or SatCom, whichever isavailable at the time and in that or any other order of preference, insome examples. The notification or summary digest (collectively includedwithin the term “digest” for purposes of this disclosure) may include anindication of the nature and type of the surveillance incident or otheranomalous incident and may include some initial or summary data selectedfrom among the larger set of surveillance data relevant to the anomalousincident.

The initial notification or summary digest may include some basic datathat ASIRS 302 may select that apprises an operator of the basicpertinent information about the incident, such as a copy or anindication of an advisory or alert (e.g., TCAS RA, a GPWS alert, or aweather system alert), along with a basic indication of the time and theaircraft's position, speed, heading, and/or altitude at the time of theadvisory or alert, and the identity or nature of the other aircraft,ground obstacle, or weather system involved in the advisory or alert,for example. ASIRS 302 may thus detect that aircraft 300 is in a statusthat makes available a first selected data transmission mode fortransmitting notifications, prior to detecting that the aircraft is inthe status that makes available the second selected data transmissionmode for transmitting the full relevant set of incident data. ASIRS 302may generate a notification of the incident, and communicate thenotification of the incident from the aircraft via the first selecteddata transmission mode, such as SatCom, while saving the full set ofdata relevant to the incident for later transmission via the secondselected data transmission mode, such as VHF or Gatelink. Aircraft 300may subsequently receive a downlink request for the complete set ofsurveillance data, potentially with a designated data transmission modeor a designated priority setting that implies a designated datatransmission mode for transmitting the complete set of surveillancedata. ASIRS 302 may then communicate the complete set of surveillancedata relevant to the surveillance incident to the transmission systemfor transmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmissionmode in response to receiving the downlink request for the surveillancedata in response to the notification, in this example.

The downlink request received by ASIRS 302 may include an indication ofa designated priority level for transmitting the surveillance data,e.g., an additional larger body of surveillance data or the main body ofsurveillance data, indicated by the notification or digest, in responseto the digest. ASIRS 302 may then communicate the surveillance datarelevant to the surveillance incident to the transmission system fortransmission from the aircraft in response to the digest, in accordancewith the priority level comprised in the received downlink request. Thismay include, if the priority level comprised in the received downlinkrequest is high priority, ASIRS 302 selecting a transmission mode fromamong one or more of SatCom, HF, VHF, ground-based broadband, andground-based cellular, based on which transmission mode is currentlyavailable and enables transmission of the surveillance data within ashortest interval of time. If the priority level comprised in thereceived downlink request is low priority, ASIRS 302 may select thetransmission mode as a lowest-cost mode selected from among at leastGatelink and SatCom. The lowest-code mode is currently typicallyGatelink, though it is anticipated that low-cost SatCom will becomeincreasingly available as a lowest-cost mode. If the lowest-cost mode isGatelink, ASIRS 302 may only transmit further surveillance data once theaircraft 300 is in range for Gatelink, e.g., at an airport gate or atleast proximate to an airport. If the priority level comprised in thereceived downlink request is intermediate priority, ASIRS 302 may selectthe transmission mode from among one or more of SatCom, HF, VHF,ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular based on criteria thatinclude reduced expense of transmission mode and transmission within aselected interval, e.g., whichever transmission mode that is leastexpensive among all transmission modes either currently available oranticipated to become available within a selected interval, such as aninterval of time of one hour, two hours, or other interval of time, or aselected interval of distance travelled, such as within 500 nauticalmiles or 1,000 nautical miles, among other possible examples, or anyother selected interval.

FIG. 4 shows a conceptual block diagram of an aircraft 400 equipped withan automated anomalous incident reporting system (AAIRS) 402, in anotherillustrative implementation. AAIRS 402 is a more generalizedimplementation of an ASIRS as described above, in that AAIRS isconfigured to receive both surveillance alerts from surveillance systemsand other types of non-surveillance-related anomaly alerts from othertypes of anomaly reporting systems. AAIRS 402 includes an event/incidentdata storage 422 connected to a TCAS system 412, an EGPWS 414, and a WXRsystem 416 (“event detection systems 412-416”), and potentially any ofvarious other anomaly alerting systems 418 (such as the examplesdiscussed above including a flight dynamics alert system, a TAWS, acabin pressure alert system, a pilot condition alert system, an internalstatus alert system, or any of the other types of anomaly alertingsystems described above), and configured to receive event and incidentdata from event detection/anomaly alerting systems 412-418, whereincident data may refer to resolution advisories and alerts, and eventdata may refer more generally to any data collected by event detectionsystems 412-418. AAIRS 402 also includes an event/incident datarelevance detection module 432, which may receive event and incidentdata from event/incident data storage 422 as well as aircraft conditiondata 428 from aircraft sensors 426. Aircraft condition data 428 mayinclude data on the position, speed, heading, and altitude of aircraft400 in addition to data on internal and external temperature andpressure, and data on the local airspeed, the condition of the engines,the state of the flight surfaces, and potentially any other data thataircraft sensors 426 of any type may collect, and data specificallycalculated by the surveillance system functions. Event/incident datastorage 422 and aircraft condition data 428 may be implemented asportions of one or more data storage devices, or as their own dedicateddata storage devices.

Event/incident data relevance detection module 432 may evaluate theaircraft condition data 428 and the event/incident data fromevent/incident data storage 422, identify data that indicates any eventthat qualifies as an incident according to incident qualifying criteriastored in event/incident data relevance detection module 432, andidentify the data onboard the aircraft that is relevant to an identifiedincident involving the aircraft. Event/incident data relevance detectionmodule 432 may also be connected to transmission mode preferences 424which may include a set of data and/or algorithms indicating selectedpreferred data transmission modes for transmitting relevant incidentdata, and potentially for transmitting incident notifications.Transmission mode preferences 424 may store an indication that incidentdata should be transmitted via VHF, HF, or via Gatelink, for example.Transmission mode preferences 424 may store an indication that urgent orhigh priority incident notifications should be sent without delay viaSatCom if possible, or via HF, or ground-based broadband, orground-based cellular, or VHF if SatCom is not available, for example.

Event/incident data relevance detection module 432 may communicateindications of incidents, notification data for event notifications orsummary digests, and full sets of relevant incident data to transmissionmode detection/scheduling module 434. Transmission modedetection/scheduling module 434 may interrogate transmission components,track aircraft position against a data store of transmission modecoverage (e.g., VHF coverage), and keep track of what transmission modesare available. Transmission mode detection/scheduling module 434 maypredict when aircraft 400 should be in range of a selected transmissionmode, and schedule incident data transmissions for the predicted timewhen aircraft 400 should be in range of a selected transmission mode.

Transmission mode detection/scheduling module 434 may thus detect thataircraft 400 is in range of a selected data transmission mode orotherwise in a status that makes available the selected datatransmission mode. Other than being in range for the selected datatransmission mode, transmission mode detection/scheduling module 434 maydetect that aircraft 400 is in a status that makes available theselected data transmission mode such as by detecting that the applicabletransmission system is in working order and is not currently occupiedwith other transmissions, for example. Transmission modedetection/scheduling module 434 may schedule transmissions of datarelevant to the incident, or transmissions of an incident notification,in between or intermittently between other transmissions or otheractivity of the applicable data transmission systems, for example.

Transmission mode detection/scheduling module 434 may communicate dataonward to transmission messagecompression/encryption/packaging/formatting module 438 (“transmissionmessage compression/encryption module 438”) when the selectedtransmission mode is available to transmit either a full data setrelevant to an incident, or a notification of an incident.Event/incident data relevance detection module 432, transmission modedetection/scheduling module 434, and transmission messagecompression/encryption module 438 may be implemented as separatesoftware applications, portions of a single application, libraries,embedded firmware, one or more GPUs, one or more FPGAs, one or moreASICs, or any other software and/or hardware implementation.

Transmission mode detection/scheduling module 434 and transmissionmessage compression/encryption module 438 may both be connected to andreceive information from operations data store 436, which may provideindications of specific conditions or constraints on selected datatransmission modes or applicable scheduling or data compression orencryption conditions, for example. Transmission messagecompression/encryption module 438 may compress and/or encrypt a fullrelevant incident data set or an incident notification for transmission,and communicate the potentially compressed and/or encrypted transmissionvia CMU (or ACARS) 432 and avionics network 440 to the applicable datatransmission system, either VHF transceiver 444 (used either fortransmitting ACARS or non-ACARS VHF signals), Gatelink transceiver 446,or SatCom transceiver 448 (which may be an Ka-band transceiver, aKu-band transceiver, or any other applicable SatCom transmissioncomponent). Transmission message compression/encryption encryptionmodule 438 may also perform packaging and/or formatting the data for thetransmission message, such as by applying one or more data integritychecks (e.g., a cyclic redundancy check (CRC)). VHF transceiver 444, HFACARS transceiver, Gatelink transceiver 446, or SatCom transceiver 448may transmit the incident data (or incident notification) to VHF groundantenna 220, Gatelink network 230, or datalink satellite 192,respectively, and thereby to operator network 140.

A receiving system at operator network 140 may decrypt, decompress, andformat the incident data or notification, and make it available toapplicable personnel, such as by sending the notification or the data ora notification of a full set of data via an email message addressed tothe applicable personnel, and/or by posting the formatted data to aninternal document, report, web page, or data store, for example. In someexamples, operator network 140 may operate a flight history tools datasystem, and may post the formatted incident data to the flight historytools data system, and send an email notification of the data to theapplicable personnel once the full set of data relevant to the incidentis available in the flight history tools.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart for an example process 500 that an ASIRS 102,202, 212, 302, and/or AAIRS 402 (collectively, “ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202,212, 302, 402”) may implement for detecting and transmittingsurveillance incident data, in accordance with illustrative aspects ofthis disclosure. In this example, process 500 includes detecting, by aprocessing device onboard an aircraft (e.g., by ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202,212, 302, 402, or in particular by event data evaluating module 304 orevent/incident data relevance detection module 432), an anomalousincident involving the aircraft that qualifies for reporting relative toa set of anomalous incident reporting criteria (e.g., ASIRS/AAIRS 102,202, 212, 302, 402 detecting selected alerts from a surveillancealerting system or other anomaly alerting system, potentially asevaluated in comparison with one or more criteria for priority levels orurgency levels as described above) (502). Process 500 further includesidentifying, by the processing device (e.g., by ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202,212, 302, 402, or in particular by event data evaluating module 304 orevent/incident data relevance detection module 432), data onboard theaircraft relevant to the anomalous incident (e.g., surveillance incidentdata collected and/or communicated via TCAS system 112, 312, 412, GPWS114, 314, 414, WXR system 116, 316, 416, anomalous incident datacollected and/or communicated via other anomaly alerting systems 418and/or any other alerting system as discussed above, and/or aircraftsensors 426, where the ASIRS/AAIRS “identifying” the surveillance data,anomalous incident data, or other data relevant to the anomalousincident may include or be accompanied by the ASIRS/AAIRS gathering,storing, indexing, editing, summarizing, packaging, compressing, and/orotherwise managing the data relevant to the anomalous incident) (504).

Process 500 further includes detecting, by the processing device (e.g.,detecting by ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, 402, or in particular bysurveillance incident data communication management module 306 or ananalogous anomalous incident data communication management module of anAAIRS, or transmission mode detection/scheduling module 434), that theaircraft is in a status that makes available a selected datatransmission mode to transmit the data relevant to the anomalousincident (e.g., that the aircraft is in range of a VHF ground antenna,or that the aircraft is at or close enough to an airport gate to be inrange for Gatelink, where the data to be transmitted may be a body orreport or “full set” of data relevant to the anomalous incident,including any of an edited, summarized, packaged, compressed, orotherwise modified body of surveillance data, or a notification or otherdigest of data relevant to the anomalous incident, as may be modified,packaged, and/or generated by ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, 402)(506). Process 500 further includes communicating, by the processingdevice, the data relevant to the anomalous incident to a transmissionsystem (e.g., communicating the incident data by ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202,212, 302, 402, or in particular by surveillance incident datacommunication management module 306 or an analogous anomalous incidentdata communication management module of an AAIRS, or transmission modedetection/scheduling module 434, to VHF transceiver 444, Gatelinktransceiver 446, SatCom transceiver 448, or other transceiver configuredfor communications via HF, ground-based broadband, ground-basedcellular, or any other applicable communication technology) fortransmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission mode(e.g., for transmission from the aircraft by VHF transceiver 204, 334,444, or for transmission by Gatelink transceiver 214, 344, 446, or fortransmission by SatCom transceiver 354, 448) in response to detectingthat the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selecteddata transmission mode (508). In some examples, ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202,212, 302, 402 may perform additional functions, such as monitoring fordownlink requests for transmission of ongoing real-time data or otheradditional recorded data.

“Surveillance data” and “anomaly data” as described herein may includenumerical values representative of conditions detected by aircraftsensors or computed by algorithms based on these sensor inputs. The datamay be time-sequenced and time-correlated in one or more methods,directly or indirectly. Examples of “conditions” in this context mayinclude aircraft position, speed, heading, altitude, pitch, and roll;changes or rates of change on all the above; crew inputs such asselected heading, destination airport, flight management mode, range andmode settings on navigation displays, radio control settings, audiovolume settings, ambient noise levels, equipment failure (inoperative or“inop”) indications, and/or other values. For instance, an exemplaryimplementation of AESS 310 described above may have almost 4,000 inputor computed data values available, many of which are updated at rates ofaround 20 to 50 times per second. The specific data values, types,ranges, update rates, etc. may vary in different implementations.

Communicating the data relevant to the anomalous incident to atransmission system for transmission from the aircraft, as describedherein, may include packaging and/or formatting the data, and thentransferring the data package to a transmission system or device that isconfigured to transfer the data off-aircraft to one or more desireddestinations. In this context, packaging and formatting the data mayillustratively include: data compression; addition of headers specificto the surveillance incident, incident type, or operator; application ofencoding protocols, such as ACARS or TCP/IP fragmentation, potentiallyincluding addition of secure routing information; application of variousdata integrity checks (e.g., cyclic redundancy check (CRC)); applicationof various security encodings (encryption); and/or addition ofmedia-specific routing or scheduling information used by onboardequipment to schedule transmission via optimal methods or timings.

As described herein, an ASIRS or AAIRS may, for example, “automatically”transmit relevant anomalous incident data from aircraft systems to anoff-aircraft system by making a determination, based on multiplefactors, as to when and how to transmit the data. The multiple factorsmay include: size of the anomalous incident data package; urgency of theanomalous incident being reported; data transmission modes that areavailable at the current moment or that are anticipated to becomeavailable soon (e.g., within a selected interval of time, illustrativelysuch as one hour or two hours), and the transmission costs associatedwith each; and cost and integrity requirements, preferences, ortradeoffs that the operator may establish. A desired off-vehiclelocation or destination, as described herein, may refer to an airlineoperations center, a contracted analysis facility, a destinationmandated by a regulatory authority, a clearinghouse or storage center,or other entity that may either analyze the data or retain the data forlater analysis.

Any of a wide variety of processing devices, such as processors 324,other components of ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, or 402, or othercentral processing units, ASICs, graphical processing units, computingdevices, or processing devices of any other type may perform process 500or portions or aspects thereof. An ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, 402,and/or other components of ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, 402 asdisclosed above may be implemented in any of a variety of types ofcircuit elements. For example, processors or other components ofASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, 402 may be implemented as one or moreASICs, as a magnetic nonvolatile random-access memory (RAM) or othertypes of memory, a mixed-signal integrated circuit, a central processingunit (CPU), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a microcontroller, aprogrammable logic controller (PLC), a system on a chip (SoC), asubsection of any of the above, an interconnected or distributedcombination of any of the above, or any other type of component or oneor more components capable of being configured to detect relevantsurveillance incident data, detect when a selected transmission mode isavailable for the aircraft, and communicate the surveillance incidentdata to an onboard transmission system on the aircraft in response tothe selected transmission mode being available for the aircraft, andperform other functions in accordance with any of the examples disclosedherein.

Functions executed by electronics associated with the devices systemsdescribed herein may be implemented, at least in part, by hardware,software, firmware, or any combination thereof. For example, variousaspects of the techniques may be implemented within one or moreprocessors, including one or more microprocessors, DSPs, ASICs, FPGAs,or any other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry, as wellas any combinations of such components, embodied in electronics includedin components of ASIRS/AAIRS 102, 202, 212, 302, 402, or other systemsdescribed herein. The terms “processor,” “processing device,” or“processing circuitry” may generally refer to any of the foregoing logiccircuitry, alone or in combination with other logic circuitry, or anyother equivalent circuitry.

Such hardware, software, firmware may be implemented within the samedevice or within separate devices to support the various operations andfunctions described in this disclosure. In addition, any of thedescribed units, modules or components may be implemented together orseparately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. Depiction ofdifferent features as modules or units is intended to highlightdifferent functional aspects and does not necessarily imply that suchmodules or units must be realized by separate hardware or softwarecomponents. Rather, functionality associated with one or more modules orunits may be performed by separate hardware or software components, orintegrated within common or separate hardware or software components.

When implemented in software, functionality ascribed to the devices andsystems described herein may be embodied as instructions on acomputer-readable medium such as random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), electricallyerasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), FLASH memory, magneticdata storage media, optical data storage media, or the like. Theinstructions may be executed to support one or more aspects of thefunctionality described in this disclosure. The computer-readable mediummay be non-transitory.

Any of the described units, modules or components may be implementedtogether or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices.Depiction of different features as separate processors, modules, orunits is intended to highlight different functions and does notnecessarily imply that such processors, modules, or units must berealized by separate hardware or software components. Rather,functionality associated with one or more modules or units may beperformed by separate hardware or software components, or integratedwithin common or separate hardware or software components.

Various aspects of the disclosure have been described. These and otheraspects are within the scope of the following claims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A system comprising: one or more processors; andone or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or moreprocessors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: detectan anomalous incident involving a vehicle on which the system isdisposed and that qualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalousincident reporting criteria; identify data collected or communicated byone or more systems onboard the vehicle, wherein such data is relevantto the anomalous incident; generate a digest of the data relevant to theanomalous incident; detect that the vehicle is in a status that makesavailable a selected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest;and communicate the digest to a transmission system for transmissionfrom the vehicle via the selected data transmission mode in response todetecting that the vehicle is in the status that makes available theselected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest.
 22. Thesystem of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to: determine a priority level of the anomalous incident; andselect the data transmission mode for transmitting the digest based onthe determined priority level of the anomalous incident.
 23. The systemof claim 22, wherein the one or more processors are further configuredto transmit the data relevant to the anomalous incident via thetransmission system to a ground-based vehicle operator network, via theselected transmission mode based on the determined priority level of theanomalous incident, wherein the one or more processors are configuredto: select, in response to determining the priority level as highpriority, a transmission mode from among one or more of SatelliteCommunication (SatCom), High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF),ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular, based on whichtransmission mode is currently available and enables transmission of thesurveillance data within a shortest interval of time; select, inresponse to determining the priority level as low priority, atransmission mode from among one or more of Gatelink and SatCom, basedon which transmission mode is lowest cost; and select, in response todetermining the priority level as intermediate priority, a transmissionmode from among one or more of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very HighFrequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular,based on criteria that comprise reduced expense of transmission mode andtransmission within a selected interval.
 24. The system of claim 22,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:communicate, in response to determining that the priority level is highpriority, both (1.) the data relevant to the anomalous incident, and(2.) an instruction to transmit the data relevant to the anomalousincident, directly to a communication system corresponding to theselected transmission mode, thereby bypassing a Communication ManagementUnit (CMU) of the vehicle, instead of communicating the data and theinstruction to the CMU.
 25. The system of claim 21, wherein the one ormore processors are configured to generate the digest such that thedigest comprises an indication of a nature or type of the anomalousincident.
 26. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more processorsare configured to generate the digest such that the digest comprisessummary data selected from among a larger set of surveillance datarelevant to the anomalous incident.
 27. The system of claim 26, whereinthe selected data transmission mode is a first selected datatransmission mode, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:receive, via a second selected data transmission mode, a request fortransmission of the larger set of surveillance data relevant to theanomalous incident and from which the summary data for the digest wasselected; and communicate, in response to receiving the request, thelarger set of surveillance data relevant to the anomalous incident to atransmission system for transmission from the vehicle via the secondselected data transmission mode.
 28. The system of claim 27, wherein thereceived request for transmission of the larger set of surveillance datarelevant to the anomalous incident comprises a request for transmissionof ongoing real-time data, and wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to communicate, in response to the request for transmissionof ongoing real-time data, additional data relevant to the anomalousincident to the transmission system for transmission from the vehicle inreal-time.
 29. The system of claim 27, wherein the received request fortransmission of the larger set of surveillance data relevant to theanomalous incident comprises an indicated priority level fortransmitting the larger set of surveillance data relevant to theanomalous incident, and wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to communicate the larger set of surveillance data relevantto the anomalous incident to the transmission system for transmissionfrom the vehicle, in response to the received request for transmissionof the larger set of surveillance data, in accordance with the indicatedpriority level for transmitting the larger set of surveillance datarelevant to the anomalous incident, such that the one or more processorsare configured to: select, in response to the indicated priority levelfor transmitting the larger set of surveillance data relevant to theanomalous incident being high priority, from among one or more ofSatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), ground-basedbroadband, and ground-based cellular, based on which transmission modeis currently available and enables transmission of the surveillance datawithin a shortest interval of time; select, in response to the indicatedpriority level for transmitting the larger set of surveillance datarelevant to the anomalous incident being low priority, a lowest-costmode from among at least Gatelink and SatCom; and select, in response tothe indicated priority level for transmitting the larger set ofsurveillance data relevant to the anomalous incident being intermediatepriority, from among one or more of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), VeryHigh Frequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular,based on criteria that include reduced expense of transmission mode andtransmission within a selected interval.
 30. The system of claim 21,wherein the one or more processors being configured to detect that thevehicle is in the status that makes available the selected datatransmission mode for transmitting the digest comprises the one or moreprocessors being configured to: detect what transmission modes arecurrently available, from among transmission modes comprising one ormore of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF),ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular; and determine whichof the available transmission modes enables transmission of the digestwithin a shortest interval of time.
 31. The system of claim 21, whereinthe one or more processors being configured to identify the data onboardthe vehicle that is relevant to the anomalous incident comprises the oneor more processors being configured to identify data relevant to aTraffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Resolution Advisory (RA),another type of surveillance alert, a ground proximity warning system(GPWS) alert, a weather system alert, a flight dynamics alert, a cabinpressure alert, a pilot condition alert, an internal status alert, oranother type of trigger from an anomaly alerting system.
 32. The systemof claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configuredto: detect the anomalous incident involving the vehicle; and store thedata that is relevant to the anomalous incident.
 33. The system of claim32, wherein the one or more processors being configured to detect theanomalous incident comprises the one or more processors being configuredto detect via at least one of a TCAS system, a ground proximity warningsystem (GPWS) system, a weather radar system, a flight dynamics alertsystem, a cabin pressure alert system, a pilot condition alert system,an internal status alert system, another type of cooperativesurveillance system, another type of radar system, a lidar system, anultrasound sensor system, an infrared sensor system, an optical imagerecognition system, or another type of sensor system.
 34. The system ofclaim 21, wherein the set of anomalous incident reporting criteriacomprise criteria based on at least one of: a time to intercept betweenthe vehicle and an external hazard, a distance between the vehicle andthe external hazard, a velocity change needed for the vehicle to avoidthe external hazard, and a trigger from an anomaly alerting system,wherein the one or more processors being configured to determine whetherthe anomalous incident qualifies for reporting relative to the set ofanomalous incident reporting criteria comprises the one or moreprocessors being configured to determine at least one of: whether thevehicle came within a minimum separation threshold of the externalhazard based on the set of anomalous incident reporting criteria, orwhether the trigger from the anomaly alerting system qualifies forgenerating an anomalous incident report, and wherein the one or moreprocessors being configured to determine whether the vehicle came withinthe minimum separation threshold of the external hazard based on the setof anomalous incident reporting criteria comprises determining: that thetime to intercept between the vehicle and the external hazard was lessthan a threshold time; that the distance between the vehicle and theexternal hazard was less than a threshold distance, wherein thethreshold distance is determined at least in part on the altitude of thevehicle; or that the velocity change needed for the vehicle to avoid theexternal hazard was greater than a threshold velocity change.
 35. Thesystem of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors being configuredto identify the data onboard the vehicle that is relevant to theanomalous incident involving the vehicle comprises the one or moreprocessors being configured to evaluate available data from one or morevehicle systems to select a portion of the available data determined tobe relevant to the incident, and wherein the one or more processorsbeing configured to communicate the data relevant to the anomalousincident to the transmission system for transmission from the vehiclecomprises the one or more processors being configured to communicate tothe transmission system the selected portion of the available datadetermined to be relevant to the anomalous incident.
 36. The system ofclaim 21, wherein the vehicle comprises an aircraft.
 37. A methodcomprising: detecting, with one or more processors of a system disposedon a vehicle, an anomalous incident involving the vehicle and thatqualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalous incidentreporting criteria; identifying, with the one or more processors, datacollected or communicated by one or more systems onboard the vehicle,wherein such data is relevant to the anomalous incident; generating,with the one or more processors, a digest of the data relevant to theanomalous incident; detecting, with the one or more processors, that thevehicle is in a status that makes available a selected data transmissionmode for transmitting the digest; and communicating, with the one ormore processors, the digest to a transmission system for transmissionfrom the vehicle via the selected data transmission mode in response todetecting that the vehicle is in the status that makes available theselected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest.
 38. Themethod of claim 37, wherein the digest comprises an indication of anature or type of the anomalous incident, and summary data selected fromamong a larger set of surveillance data relevant to the anomalousincident, the method further comprising: determining a priority level ofthe anomalous incident; selecting the data transmission mode fortransmitting the digest based on the determined priority level of theanomalous incident; and communicating the digest to the transmissionsystem for transmission from the vehicle via the selected datatransmission mode based on the determined priority level of theanomalous incident, wherein selecting the data transmission mode fortransmitting the digest based on the determined priority level of theanomalous incident comprises: selecting, in response to determining thepriority level as high priority, a transmission mode from among one ormore of Satellite Communication (SatCom), High Frequency (HF), Very HighFrequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular,based on which transmission mode is currently available and enablestransmission of the surveillance data within a shortest interval oftime; selecting, in response to determining the priority level as lowpriority, a transmission mode from among one or more of Gatelink andSatCom, based on which transmission mode is lowest cost; and selecting,in response to determining the priority level as intermediate priority,a transmission mode from among one or more of SatCom, High Frequency(HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, andground-based cellular, based on criteria that comprise reduced expenseof transmission mode and transmission within a selected interval.
 39. Acomputer program product comprising a computer-readable medium havingexecutable instructions stored thereon to cause a computing system to:detect an anomalous incident involving a vehicle on which the system isdisposed and that qualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalousincident reporting criteria; identify data collected or communicated byone or more systems onboard the vehicle, wherein such data is relevantto the anomalous incident; generate a digest of the data relevant to theanomalous incident; detect that the vehicle is in a status that makesavailable a selected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest;and communicate the digest to a transmission system for transmissionfrom the vehicle via the selected data transmission mode in response todetecting that the vehicle is in the status that makes available theselected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest.
 40. Thecomputer program product of claim 39, wherein the digest comprises anindication of a nature or type of the anomalous incident, and summarydata selected from among a larger set of surveillance data relevant tothe anomalous incident, and the executable instructions are to furthercause the computing system to: determine a priority level of theanomalous incident; select the data transmission mode for transmittingthe digest based on the determined priority level of the anomalousincident; and communicate the digest to the transmission system fortransmission from the vehicle via the selected data transmission modebased on the determined priority level of the anomalous incident,wherein selecting the data transmission mode for transmitting the digestbased on the determined priority level of the anomalous incidentcomprises: selecting, in response to determining the priority level ashigh priority, a transmission mode from among one or more of SatelliteCommunication (SatCom), High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF),ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular, based on whichtransmission mode is currently available and enables transmission of thesurveillance data within a shortest interval of time; selecting, inresponse to determining the priority level as low priority, atransmission mode from among one or more of Gatelink and SatCom, basedon which transmission mode is lowest cost; and selecting, in response todetermining the priority level as intermediate priority, a transmissionmode from among one or more of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very HighFrequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular,based on criteria that comprise reduced expense of transmission mode andtransmission within a selected interval.